And Then Santorum Came To An End: Why The Pennsylvania Senator Withdrew Before His Home State Primary

The only call a politician hates more comes just before a concession speech. And yet, in recent weeks, some current and former Pennsylvania colleagues of Rick Santorum began making the second most-uncomfortable call: they would be supporting Mitt Romney over him.

"It was a very, very difficult discussion to have with Rick. I’ve supported him in a number of campaigns, and he’s supported me with mine," admits Rep. Bill Shuster, who announced his support for Romney last month. "When you have somebody you consider yourself close to, it’s very, very difficult to let him know that ’Hey I’m going in another direction.’ It’s not about friendship, or being from the same state. It’s about what I believe is best for America."

Rick Santorum’s candidacy always seemed like a pipe dream to everyone but his natural allies, and it was in Pennsylvania, his home state, where Santorum finally came around to the truth. What Shuster believed was best for America was a candidate with ecutive experience, he said, and that’s what he explained to Santorum. But, just as important, Shuster and the other Pennsylvania Republicans wanted someone they believed could compete with Barack Obama in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. And after Santorum’s catastrophic 18 point loss in 2006, many in the state’s Republican party thought it couldn’t be him.

In 2006 Santorum became an avatar, not only for everything Democrats hated about Bush, but also for a kind of religious intolerance that Democrats, and especially young people, would no longer tolerate from someone in national politics. He was hammered for his support of the Iraq War, for No Child Left Behind, for telling the Associated Press "I have no problem with homosexuality, I have a problem with homosexual acts" and his infamous "man on dog" comment. I’m from western Pennsylvania and was a college student at the University of Pittsburgh during the 2006 race, and the indelible images of that race are, for me, these posters of Rick Santorum by the Partisan Project, plastered all over campus: One showed a composite image of Rick Santorum’s face with Mullah Omar’s beard; another depicted the Pennsylvania Senator with his pants around his ankles, screwing the state of Pennsylvania. They were nasty, and vitriolic, and the message was unsubtle: the state would not be putting up with his buffoonish remarks any longer.

And they didn’t. It was a tough year for Republicans nationally, but Pennsylvania Republicans felt that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did such a good job tying Santorum to down-ticket candidates that it cost many of them points—and a few their reelection.

"Unfortunately he clearly did," drag members of Congress down with him, says former Rep. Phil English, a college friend of Santorum’s who also decided to endorse Romney. "I don’t know that he’s acknowledged this, but back in 2006 two Republicans lost in very close races in Pennsylvania, Mike Fitzpatrick and Melissa Hart. And both were closely tied by the Democrats to Rick Santorum." (Both Hart and Fitzpatrick, who has since been reelected and endorsed Romney, declined to comment on the role Santorum played in their 2006 losses.)

"I think that most of us recognize that Santorum was taking bullets and bleeding on national Republican," English told me, adding that his undertow particularly relevant "because Rick Santorum has made an argument that he’s more electable than Romney, and when you look at it from a Pennsylvania perspective that doesn’t survive the laugh test."

In the last week, it became clearer that Pennsylvania Republicans were thinking the same thing. Polls showed his lead in the state starting to slide, conservative leaders and strategists began vocalizing their desire to see him get out rather than risk another embarrassing loss.

"I don’t think he was happy with my decision," says former Pennsylvania Rep. Phil English, "but he’s been a great gentleman throughout. I will leave it to others to qualify the extent to which he has been surprised by a lack of automatic support in a state that he represented for two terms in the Senate."

It was always pretty baffling for Pennsylvania Democrats to see their once-vanquished bogeyman suddenly held up as the nice-guy alternative to Mitt Romney. But in his concession speech just now, Rick went out on all the right notes. He thanked the Duggars. He fondly recalled the sweater vest craze. He shouted out the "Game On" girls, and genuinely seemed to be in wonder of it all, which was really the appropriate way to get out of the race. This was an incredible political reinvention for him, from asshole senator who suffered the worst defeat of an incumbent in Pennsylvania’s history to a guy running competitively for the nation’s highest office. And if he goes on to be thought of as a well-liked voice for the social conservative movement, a Mike Huckabee type, then his unlikely run for president was a huge success.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective 1/4/2014) and Privacy Policy (effective 1/4/2014). GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Condé Nast.